Iran International
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian is coming under growing pressure for what critics call his failure to match tough talk on economic reform with concrete action.
The pressure comes amid rising inflation, stagnant growth and deepening shortages of energy and water that have strained public patience.
Experts warn the situation could deteriorate further next year, when the full impact of renewed UN sanctions triggered by European powers is expected to hit Iran’s already fragile economy.
Economist Morteza Afghah told the moderate outlet Fararu on November 12 that Pezeshkian’s call for eight-percent annual growth—echoed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—was “unattainable even without the war with Israel and Europe’s snapback sanctions.”
He said Iran’s fifth development plan had already fallen far behind schedule and criticized Pezeshkian for repeatedly insisting that “major economic problems should be solved” without offering specifics.
“Which of the people’s problems can be solved by repeating that over and over?” he asked.
'Wasteful'
Conservative commentator Vahid Yaminpour made a similar point in a televised debate with a member of Pezeshkian’s media team, saying the president had invoked the country’s economic malaise nine times in less than a week without offering a semblance of a solution.
One such instance came earlier that day, when Pezeshkian criticized the large annual budgets allocated to organizations he said served no useful purpose.
“Start cutting those budgets from my own office,” he told lawmakers, noting that the presidential office employs nearly 4,000 staff, though he believes it could function with 400.
Economist Mehdi Pazouki urged the president to move beyond rhetoric and impose discipline on government spending, highlighting the proliferation of parallel bodies performing overlapping tasks.
“The irregular expansion of the government is one of the main reasons for the rising inflation rate,” he told Fararu. “Without solving this problem, it will be too difficult to overcome inflation.”
Pazouki also ridiculed Pezeshkian’s pledge to deliver a “budget without deficit,” calling the assertion a “joke.”
'Unaware'
Last month, even the conservative establishment daily Jomhouri Eslami advised the president: “Cut off the budget of organizations that have no achievements. The only thing they do is act like devoted disciples of those who fund them.”
Such criticism has been leveled at every administration, and Pezeshkian appears no more capable—or willing—than his predecessors to confront it. But he is also developing a growing PR problem.
During Pezeshkian’s parliament address on Tuesday, speaker—and elections rival—Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told the president that his economy minister Ahmad Meydari and his spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani did not grasp basic economic concepts.
Pezeshkian admitted he was unaware of what his own spokesperson had told the nation.
